Rock Fault Caused 3 Miners` Deaths

July 11, 1986|By United Press International.

WALTONVILLE, ILL. — A roof collapse deep inside a coal mine that killed three men was caused by a large slip in the rock strata that is difficult to detect with sounding devices, a state mining official confirmed Thursday.

Representatives of the federal Mine Safety Health Administration and the state Department of Mines and Minerals arrived Thursday to determine what caused a large section of rock and shale roof to collapse at the Freeman United Coal Co.`s Orient No. 6 mine near Waltonville.

``It definitely was a slip,`` said Brad Evilsizer, director of the state Department of Mines and Minerals. Evilsizer went into the collapsed section Wednesday and said the slip was difficult to recognize because of its slick upperside and because its underside is camouflaged by coal, rock, clay and shale.

He also said the defect was rather large, making it difficult for inspectors to detect it with sounding devices.

``It doesn`t tie into the strata,`` Evilsizer said about the slip. ``It was hanging up waiting to fall.``

The vibrations from a continuous mining machinery being used to make an air passage in a new section of the mine apparently loosened the slip, Evilsizer said.

Five other people were working in the area when a ``fairly sizable``

section of the roof collapsed Wednesday, about 750 feet below and 1,500 feet back from the entrance to the mine, Freeman Vice President James Ryan said.

The accident, which took the lives of a father and son and a third man, was the second fatal accident at the mine in three weeks.

Ryan said the company would join in the investigation.

``It`s very difficult to tell what causes a roof collapse,`` he said.

``There are roof falls that occur throughout the country. It`s not common but it does happen.``

The company said the mine is inspected daily by its own personnel and monthly by state officials.

The mine, which is considered one of the largest in the nation, has been inspected 68 times since the government`s fiscal year began Oct. 1, 1985. And a total of 260 violations, ranging from ventilation to fire protection, have been cited, an MSHA spokesman said today.

The dead were identified as Kenneth Hartford, 36, a mine manager from Stonefort; Bobby Ray Perry, 52, a section foreman from nearby Lake of Egypt;

and his son, Bobby Ray Jr., 23, also a section foreman from Lake of Egypt.

The collapse occurred during the second week of a 14-day vacation shutdown, Ryan said, and the victims were supervising repair work needed to open a new section of the mine.

A United Mine Workers spokesman said two mining machine operators, two roof bolters and a buggy operator, all union employees, were working behind the victims when they heard the roof crumble and began running.

On June 20 a miner working underground was electrocuted, apparently because he came in contact with a fuse box, and in December, 1976, a miner was killed in a similar roof collapse, said a spokesman for the state Department of Mines and Minerals, Art Rice.